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November 10, 2009

They want to Zap you

Dealer hopes tiny electric cars catch on

By Alan Burke

This article has been corrected since it was originally published. To see the correction, please click here.

With their mouselike noses, they seem the sort of cars you rode on a track at the amusement park. Even Rob Cerundolo, who sells them at Hillcrest Motors on Highland Avenue in Salem, admits they're basically golf carts. Some have only three wheels, and you can't drive them on divided highways.

Even so, Zap cars in some form might just be the cars of the future.

The advantages are obvious. The little vehicles — most are two-seaters — run on pure electricity.

"They have no emissions," Cerundolo says. And they are virtually silent. "It has a loud horn."

Their speeds are "governed," limiting both how fast you can go and how seriously you might be injured in an accident.

Technically, the state considers them scooters — despite the car body, the seats and the AM/FM radio. As scooters, they avoid government crash tests and the need for air bags.

With three wheels, Cerundolo says, the vehicles are still remarkably stable. (A few models boast four wheels.) He drove one for two weeks, going back and forth between Hillcrest and Cycles 128, his motorcycle dealership on Brimbal Avenue in Beverly.

The cars have a range of about 40 miles, he says. You can "fill her up" at an ordinary electrical outlet for 3 cents a mile.

Because they are such "eye turners," Cerundolo says, other drivers are too fascinated to complain about the slow speeds. "They laugh and they wave. ... People love it." Particularly for the driver, he said, "It's fun. F-U-N, fun."

As if to make the point, the little vehicle was borrowed by Beverly City Council candidate Bob Hames to draw attention to his campaign. (He lost.) That deal worked out a little better for Cerundolo, who wants as many people as possible to see the little machines.

More Zap cars might have been sold, he adds, if the price of gasoline had climbed above $3. The selling price remains high, more than $10,000 for the cheapest car. But he expects that just as the price of high-definition televisions and computers went down, so will the price of these cars. Likewise, as the technology matures, Zap will produce faster electric cars with more range.

The cars are currently made in China and assembled in California, where Zap is based. Cerundolo believes that government grants will eventually allow the company to move the whole process to the United States.

Don Stokes of Topsfield distributes the Zap cars in New England, promoting them as the ideal driving-around-town car. He's sold six in Massachusetts so far, and as much as he boosts the cars, he isn't afraid to admit that they're not perfect.

For one thing, you won't see him behind the wheel. "I'm 6-5 and 250 pounds," he says. In other words, until they get bigger he just doesn't fit.

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